Hispanic and Chicano theatre has been in existence long since the late 1500’s and has been influenced by the historical changes since then. There are three main sections to this type of theatre, Chicano which is mainly in the West and Southwest parts of America, Cuban-American which is largely associated with Florida and New York, and then the Nuyrican - mostly Puerto Rican influenced groups in New York. Today, many of the plays put on by these groups focus on stories dealing with the link and lifestyle growing up in America with their own, different cultures. Theatre began as amateur groups telling religious stories until the Church began to take over and organized them until the plays began to transcend nationality. In the beginning, the very first plays were Biblical plays, put on to spread Catholicism. The genres of plays slowly changed as theatre groups traveled across South America (mostly just Mexico) until the 1870’s when they began moving more into the U.S. and spreading, some groups settling and others continuing to travel. From this point until the Great Depression, the theatre was mostly stagnant with a few changes here and there and all three groups began booming again in the late 1950’s. Since then, Hispanic and Chicano theatre has focused on social change and cultural identity and possibly facing a new shift as this generation is taken over by U.S. children born to immigrant parents.